Cancer prevention and COVID-19

Please note that this may be updated as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves

27 April 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has immediate and long-term implications for a range of factors that can influence an individual’s risk of developing cancer – especially for those in vulnerable and low-income populations, and those facing a rapid loss of income. While the pandemic presents immediate health risks, it is also changing our food consumption patterns and our levels of physical activity, potentially impacting on the longer-term health of populations.

Diet, immunity and COVID-19

Living with overweight and obesity increases the risk of at least 12 different types of cancer. So a healthy, balanced diet is vital for good health, but especially so during and after infection. As shown by World Cancer Research Fund’s (WCRF) Cancer Prevention Recommendations a healthy diet, alongside physical activity, is key to maintaining a healthy immune system. There is also evidence to show that people affected by obesity can have an impaired immune response or immune function, making them more vulnerable to infections. Not only does a healthy diet provide ongoing support to the immune system, but as part of a healthy lifestyle it can help reduce around 40 per cent of cancers, as highlighted in WCRF’s Third Expert Report, Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer: a Global Perspective.

The wider consequences of COVID-19

However, the very measures designed to keep us safe from COVID-19, such as lockdowns, have the unintended consequence of affecting our diet and physical activity levels. This often affects the poorest and most vulnerable disproportionately, due to the lack of access to quality, affordable, healthy food. The pandemic has caused food supply disruption, stockpiling and production issues, and spikes in food prices. This has led to an increased reliance on highly processed, long shelf life, calorie-rich foods and has reduced access to fresh fruit and vegetables. In addition, nutrition-specific community measures designed to address problems of malnutrition might be suspended to focus health resources on COVID-19.

To ensure populations continue to access and consume healthy diets and can be physically active during the pandemic, governments should:

Recognise that the food system and health system are intrinsically linked.

Ensure healthy and affordable food is available for all, especially for those who are more vulnerable to COVID-19, are from low-income households, or rely on social protection.

Continue advancing obesity and NCD prevention policies that are in development.

Encourage the food and drink industry to offer healthy and affordable food.

Run campaigns to promote healthy food preparation and consumption.

Maintain surveillance on policies and industry actions that may undermine access to healthy diets, and ensure that policies relating to healthy diets are still enforced and that regulations are not exploited (especially in relation to children).

Tackle misinformation about COVID-19 and promote the importance of high quality and trustworthy news sources, especially around diet, nutrition and physical activity.

Prioritising health-promoting food policies

Before the pandemic we already had a global epidemic of overweight and obesity. Governments could be presented with a ‘ticking health time-bomb’ of rising overweight and obesity rates and a greater burden of disease once the pandemic subsides if healthy diets and physical activity are not prioritised.

Indeed, this pandemic could provide the pivotal moment to refocus on prevention, reshape policy and increase action to reduce rising rates of overweight and obesity.

To achieve this, we urge governments to, as soon as viable, take a longer-term view and:

Promote affordable and accessible healthy foods to all.

Adopt a comprehensive approach, as outlined in the NOURISHING framework, to policy making to ensure policy coherence between food and health.

Promote increased physical activity in policy development processes.

Seek international cooperation and policy coherence between food policy and health.

These are very difficult times. Despite these challenges, WCRF commends the World Health Organization for its leadership and coordination of the pandemic response. The World Health Organization has played, and continues to play, a critical role in protecting people’s health and we urge the international community to maintain support for the WHO.

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World Cancer Research Fund International is a leading authority on cancer prevention research related to diet, weight and physical activity.

We are a not-for-profit organisation that leads & unifies a network of cancer prevention charities with a global reach. These charities are based in the USA, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Hong Kong.